Steady

Description:

Steady was a three-hour performance choreographed by Justine A. Chambers that considered the act of rocking as a low-barrier dance form and an act of self-care through its soothing effects on the parasympathetic nervous system. 

Steady housed an archive of scores, videos, and instructions for rocking submitted by the public, which were made visible through a series of consecutive solo and duo performances by Stephanie Cyr, Alison Denham, Kate Franklin, Bynh Ho, and Vanessa Kwan. These archived materials were held within the performers’ bodies, simultaneously offering the archive and the practice of rocking in multiple permutations. With lighting design by James Proudfoot, the performers rocked under a disco ball to a playlist of dance hits by artists including Cher, Prince, Robyn, Arca, Talking Heads, Whitney Houston, and more. Audiences of twenty people were invited to experience the work at twenty-minute intervals across its duration.

Steady was presented as part of the project No Single Dancer, curated by Jasmine Hynes. Presented with support from the Killy Foundation and the Audain Endowment for Curatorial Studies through the Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory in collaboration with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia.